UCLA Anderson's Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities to Benefit from PepsiCo's New On-the-Go Recycling Initiative

Each bottle and can recycled through PepsiCo will support career training, education, and
job creation for returning U.S. veterans with disabilities

LOS ANGELES -- Through an initiative called the Dream Machine, PepsiCo and Waste Management intend to increase consumer recycling of beverage containers and at the same time support America's disabled military veterans by providing substantial financial support to the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities (EBV), a national program created and managed in the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University and available through five other prominent schools of business across the country, including UCLA Anderson School of Management.

PepsiCo and Waste Management hope to use the Dream Machine to increase the U.S. beverage container recycling rate from 34 percent to 50 percent by 2018 and to provide funding to the EBV, a national program offering free, experiential training in entrepreneurship and small business management to post-9/11 veterans with disabilities. The more people recycle bottles and cans in a Dream Machine, the more support PepsiCo will provide EBV to offer career training, education and job creation to returning U.S. veterans.

"We are deeply committed to assisting the increasing number of disabled veterans who return to our communities and seek to build independent lives and economic opportunities for their families and others," said Judy Olian, dean of UCLA Anderson School of Management. "UCLA Anderson is especially grateful for the generous support from PepsiCo and Waste Management to help expand the reach of this program, which fosters the entrepreneurial ambitions of our deserving veterans."

The Dream Machine kiosks are computerized receptacles that include a personal reward system that allows consumers to collect and redeem points for each bottle or can they recycle in the kiosk. The Dream Machine recycling initiative will introduce thousands of new recycling kiosks in popular public venues to make it more convenient and rewarding for consumers to recycle on the go. PepsiCo has also entered into a partnership with national nonprofit Keep America Beautiful to encourage community involvement in the program by engaging nearly 600 local KAB affiliate organizations in communities nationwide.

Now a national consortium, the EBV opens the door to business ownership for U.S. veterans by developing skills that relate to the many steps associated with launching and growing a small business. The EBV is offered by a network of world-class business schools at Syracuse University, Texas A&M University, Florida State University, UCLA, Purdue University and the University of Connecticut. The training is provided at no cost to eligible veterans. "Currently, there is more demand for spots in the EBV program than what we can provide, which is why support from PepsiCo to expand our reach and support more veterans is so valuable," says Mike Haynie, founder of the EBV, assistant professor of entrepreneurship in the Whitman School, and a former U.S. Air Force major. "PepsiCo's investment and commitment to EBV allows us to expand the program and make it accessible to more veterans with disabilities."

The EBV training consists of three stages: an online curriculum for 45 days; resident training on campus at an EBV university for 9 days; and mentoring and continued support for 12+ months. The majority of EBV graduates go on to start their own successful businesses starting with each of their unique visions and building on the business and leadership skills developed through the program.

Partnering with EBV is a natural extension of PepsiCo's current partnership with American Corporate Partners, a nationwide mentoring program dedicated to helping veterans transition from the armed services to private enterprise. The Dream Machines will be manufactured by Waste Management's GreenOps, a subsidiary of Waste Management, and operated by Greenopolis, the first interactive recycling system that brings together online and on street technologies and rewards people for recycling their beverage containers in kiosks by allowing them to receive awards when they visit greenopolis.com.

About UCLA Anderson School of ManagementUCLA Anderson School of Management, established in 1935, is regarded among the leading business schools in the world. UCLA Anderson faculty members are renowned for their teaching excellence and research in advancing management thinking. Each year, UCLA Anderson provides management education to more than 1,800 students enrolled in MBA, Fully-Employed MBA, Executive MBA, UCLA-NUS Global Executive MBA, Master of Financial Engineering, and doctoral programs, and to more than 2,000 professional managers through executive education programs. Combining highly selective admissions, varied and innovative learning programs, and a world-wide network of 36,000 alumni, UCLA Anderson develops and prepares global leaders.